


Rise of The Ace

by Casandraelf



Category: Original Work, Pride Knights (Tumblr)
Genre: Ace/Aro Solidarity, Based on a Tumblr Post, Friendship, Gen, Origin Story, Tumblr: Prideknights, Tumblr: Writing-prompt-s, pride knights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:08:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24951337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casandraelf/pseuds/Casandraelf
Summary: An origin story for the seventh Pride Knight, the Ace.Based on the original writing-prompt-s post
Relationships: Black Arrow and The Ace





	Rise of The Ace

The idea of sacrificing for the sake of family was the one thing that kept Lucille, the sole daughter born to a lesser noble family in Estria known for their incredible leather-work and treated animal skins, going in the darkest moments of her life. Growing up, she never understood or even liked why girls her own age were so interested in boys. She could only ever see them in one of two ways: as horribly flawed, annoying, half-mature children or as simply people. Her parents weren't bothered by her reluctance and even downright resistance to getting into relationships on her own, as they assumed she was simply honoring their wishes. In truth, the idea of being bedded and bearing children was just...not appealing. Lucille tried again and again to wrap her head around the idea, but she never could. A romance didn't sound too bad...but there was always the caveat of what came after.

Quiet and reserved, Lucille was an intelligent young lady who only ever sought out people to befriend and speak to, and Aaron, the son of a fletcher and a hunter, was her dearest friend. Exhausted from being paraded around to various noblemen for several days, Lucille slipped away from her family to be with Aaron, who was in his favorite place: a strange clearing in a huge forest where he had set up a kind of hidden space for himself. He often practiced archery and building both bows and arrows there.

“Hiding from your fans, I see,” she commented dryly as she stepped into the glade, watching as he perked up.

“What a nice dress, Lucy,” he replied with a chuckle, lowering his bow as he turned to face her. “The white makes it seem like your parents _really_ want you to get married.”

Lucille sat down on a stump, adjusting her skirt before playing with a peculiar toy she had gotten from one of her potential suitors, a thing that fascinated Aaron. It resembled a wooden disc, but with what was probably a rod in the center, which a silken string was most likely connected to. Aaron guessed this because Lucille, who had apparently gotten quite good with it, was effortlessly flinging it out on its string and drawing it back in.

“Don't joke like that, Aaron. I hope to never wear a wedding dress,” she replied, getting her toy dangerously close to his nose a few times. “Marriage seems like such a bother. I can't stand the thought.”

“Who said I was joking? Marriage _is_ a bother! I'm much too selfish for it. You're worried about it for a different reason, I bet,” he replied, sitting down next to her as she tried to whack a branch with her toy.

“I am, Aaron. I don't want what is expected to come with it,” she replied. “To be bedded over and over for the sake of either pleasing my husband or pushing out children? It's a terrible thought!”

There was silence for a moment before Aaron spoke.

“Maybe we should marry each other, then.”

The whirring of Lucille's toy stopped as she looked at him.

“...What?”

“Think about it, Lucy,” Aaron replied, placing his hands on her shoulders. “If we were to marry, we would both win! You wouldn't have to bed anyone and I wouldn't have to play at romance! If we truly, desperately needed a child, we could either try until we had one of our own and _only_ do so until we had a child to carry on for both of our families or simply take on an heir that we raise from an already living child! It's foolproof!”

“It would be...except you're not from a noble family,” Lucille replied. Aaron deflated and removed his hands as he resumed staring off into the distance, sitting back down as she spoke. “My parents only care about me marrying a nobleman of equal or higher standing.” The two fell into silence, clearly lost and not sure what to do. Aaron had known for a while that he had no desire to find a wife for any reason other than to please his family and continue the bloodline, and Lucille knew she hated the thought of forcing herself to bed someone and bear children. The thought of doing anything with Aaron seemed tolerable because, at least with him, he understood her pain, and they could bear it together.

“You know what could happen to us if what we are is discovered, right?”  


Aaron's blood ran cold. He knew exactly what she was referring to.

“Banishment, execution, torture, 'reformation,' yeah, I know. I know what happened to Anna.”

It was well known that Anna had been in a long-running affair with a princess and, as it was believed she was possessed by a demon, she had been whipped relentlessly. She was supposed to have confessed her sins, but allegedly the demon wouldn't let her. In reality, what was more likely was that, whether she admitted to the affair or not, she was going to be executed in a cruel fashion. No one knew what happened to the princess after that, as she disappeared shortly after.

“I will not die like a dog, Aaron. If I must, I will hide who I am to survive, and I think you should do the same,” Lucille told him.

“Can we still be friends, Lucy?”  
Lucille stood up and looked at him with a sad smile.  
“I _really_ hope so.”

A few weeks after that meeting, Lucille was unable to find Aaron, but her answer came quickly when his parents reacted with disgust upon her asking. She could only assume that he had been found out and a terrible fate had befallen him. She didn't have long to dwell on it, though, as she soon met the man her parents had chosen for her. Lord Honeywood, a higher-ranking nobleman with connections with merchants all over Estria. She had hoped a flame, however small, would have sparked to life in her heart when she lay eyes upon him...but nothing. He was extremely handsome, and engaging to talk to. She liked him...but she didn't  _like_ him. She found his aesthetics to her liking, she enjoyed their conversations and she found herself considering him a friend...but as a lover? A husband? Absolutely  _nothing._ Still, she said yes to the marriage. She saw how advantageous it would be for her family, and she recognized how much she liked him. She would sacrifice her happiness, even her very soul, for her family, like the good daughter she was. She  _had_ to.

“...You have no true love for me, do you?”

She didn't look up when Honeywood said those words three days before their wedding.

“Does it matter? We get along, and this marriage will be beneficial. I...will have no legal right to oppose you as your wife. But please, I beg of you...don't force me to consummate our marriage.”

The thought that she would soon be his property sickened her, but she knew she couldn't fight him. She couldn't fight her family. She picked at her food as she felt his eyes on her. There was a strange tension in the air, a tension that was soon broken when he spoke four words that made her blood instantly run cold.

“You're queer, aren't you?”

She froze, feeling like her heart stopped

“Well? No love for me, a desperate desire to not consummate our marriage, hell, your parents even said it was easy to keep you away from undesirable relationships. I heard rumors about queers who claimed to have no interest in love or lust. Why not just become a nun, huh??”

“And lock myself away from the world?! Why can't I just live without a man, huh?! Why do I have to be a mere tool, a means to an end?! Why am I not human?!”

She jumped to her feet, slamming her hands on the table as she glared at Honeywood, rage in her eyes as she raised her voice. She couldn't keep it in any longer.

_I won't sacrifice my identity, my self, for people who won't accept me for who I am, flaws and all!_

“I misjudged you, Lord Honeywood. I thought that perhaps you would respect me the way I wished, to see me as a human, a person...but you're just like the rest: you only see me as a tool, a means to an end.”

The next thing she knew, Lucille was abandoned in the woods with nothing to defend herself. Lord Honeywood was furious that he had been 'tricked,' that her family had attempted to give him a 'broken woman' as a wife. Lucille didn't care. Nothing really mattered anymore. She could at least die as herself. As she walked into the woods, she could hear a twig break from one side of her, a grumble from another, then something whizzed past her ear as she screamed, falling to her knees as she shielded her head with her arms. She could hear muttering, followed by plate mail rubbing together, accompanied by either the shifting of fabric or the clinking of chain mail. Warriors, and they were probably here to kill her where no one could find her remains.

“Wait, hold on,” she heard a man say. “Can I see your face?”

“Why, so you can kill me? I don't think so!”

She refused to look up as she felt strong hands gently lift her to her feet.

“I don't care what you do to me! Call me broken all you want, I'll never do what you wish! I'd rather die!”

“Lucy?”

That made her open her eyes at last, looking around in shock at the figures around her. They were all knights, but their armor was...different. They all had similar traits, but they were all different in some way. She felt the hands that had lifted her up let go, prompting her to turn around to see a large, bulky figure in worn church robes step back, face hidden by a deep hood and face mask as they raised their hands in a non-threatening manner. They and a young man standing next to them wielded polearms, the bulky figure wielding a heavy double-axe and the young man a double-bladed halberd, though the former wore their weapon on their back. The young man was clad in similar garb to the towering figure next to them, but the one who said her name stepped forward, pushing back his hood and pulling down his face mask.

“...Aaron?”

Aaron's suit of armor wasn't complete, as it was missing everything that covered his arms, but his hood and face mask, actually made of the same fabric, had a viney pattern all over it. The bow he wielded was beautifully made, resembling vines twisted together into a strong yet flexible bow. He possessed black arrows now, made with white or gray fletching at the ends. He gave her a sympathetic smile.

“I guess you were discovered, huh?”

Wiping away her tears, she nodded. Aaron hugged her close, happy to be reunited with his best friend.

“We're safe here, with these people. They know exactly what we are...because they're just like us.”

“...Queer?”

“That's right,” she heard the man who first spoke up say. Aaron and the other warriors immediately turned toward him. Lucille finally saw who it was they were looking at: a man in somewhat battered armor with an owl motif. He had clearly seen some battles, but the one thing that drew her attention was the rainbow cape he proudly wore. “There is no shame in that whatsoever, and together, we will show Estria that we not only deserve the right and freedom to exist, but that we are _proud_ to exist! We have all been rejected for who we see ourselves as or for who we love, and yes, even for who we _don't_ love.”

That got Lucille's attention as she finally spoke up.

“So...Aaron and I-”

“-are free to be who you are,” the owl knight finished. “There is no shame in having no attraction to anyone. So tell me, Lucille, why were you cast out?”

She looked away, scared as she felt eyes on her. She felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder, though. Looking up, she realized it was the bulky warrior.

“We were all scared once, just like you,” an unfamiliar voice spoke up. Lucille saw a tall, proud warrior woman in armor with a diamond motif...at least, she assumed it was a woman, judging by her body language and her armor design. “But it's ok now. You can speak up.”

Gathering her courage, Lucille finally spoke.

“I...I don't ever want to bed anyone. I just...I can't. I don't know how to explain it, I just...it feels wrong to imagine myself doing that. I can live without it, I just...why do people want it so bad?!”

“And it's ok to never want that,” The Diamond reassured. “What's not ok is forcing others to do what they don't want to do. I was cast out because I always saw myself as a woman. It didn't matter to the people I was with, though. They declared me an abomination and cast me out.”

“Deimos,” the bulky figure grunted in a simple introduction. “Not a man, not a woman, just a person. Don't care what my body says, m'just a person. I can lift, I smash things, I am strong. Call me a man or woman, don't care. Just a person. Don't fuck with Eclipse. You hurt him, I hurt you, plain and simple. He's my brother.”

Eclipse, the young man next to Deimos, chuckled.

“The church we were a part of declared me a 'blasphemous abomination of an incubus' and cast me out. Deimos refused to stick around since they figured the church would kick them out next. All because I like men and women.”

Deimos responded to Eclipse with something like 'wherever you go, I follow' as they nodded in agreement.

“If we're doing introductions,” a woman with armor stylized like an eagle and an elegant presence chimed in. “You've probably heard of a woman called Anna being whipped to death because demons wouldn't let her confess her sins, right? Well, she was my lover, and there was no possession. Anna was a proud woman who refused to give into their demands to give up on me and go be with the man who ultimately executed her. I abdicated the throne and abandoned my kingdom in response. Call me the 'Pink Eagle' now. I won't let anyone die like Anna did.”

“And you may call me Sir Roderick,” the owl knight said as Lucille looked at him. “Aaron chose to call himself 'the Black Arrow.' We—that is, all of us—want you to join our crusade, Lucille.”

Lucille looked at him, a fire having been lit in her heart. Then again, the sparks were always there.

“I...I won't sacrifice my identity, my self, for people who won't accept me for who I am. That's what I decided on the day I revealed who I truly was. I don't want others to have to hide who they are. I'm in.”

Some time later, a seventh member of the fabled—and infamous—Pride Knights, was seen riding with them, wielding a curiously-designed mace and wearing the skin of a wolf. When paired with the heavy axe and bow-wielding knights as they raided hunting parties chasing down Estrians accused of just plain not fitting the mold when it came to who they were or who they loved, the mace-swinging knight was said to be the most vicious of the group, rushing in with the ferocity of the beast whose pelt she wore, scoring one lethal hit after another as she unhorsed them by wrapping the chain around their necks and dragging them back for the others to bring down.

She soon became known as the Ace of Spades, or the Ace for short. Why the Ace of Spades? Because if you saw her riding toward you, mace spinning in the air, you could be sure your end was nigh. She was a master of the mace, and no one could beat her.

What she lacked in strength, she made up for with brutality, but also loyalty to her pack. She would never surrender.

After all, the Ace had done so once, and she swore to never do so again.


End file.
